ADS SIPro – PIPro class

Course Overview

This 1-day, medium paced course provides a detailed presentation of Signal Integrity (SI) and Power Integrity (PI) are often treated as separate design tasks that are closely interrelated, with the same end-goal for a design: Ensure link performance and system-level reliability.
ADS introduces a single user interface for both PI and SI analyses, where one setup can be easily copied from one analysis-type to another, with simulations run in the same environment. SIPro and PIPro deliver this sharing and common GUI, workflow, model database, and results visualization. Furthermore, with the high-capacity EM solvers in SIPro and PIPro, no need to spend hours manually simplifying designs, reducing size by cookie-cutting and removing layers and nets. SIPro / PIPro are Net-driven flow with guide port creation, quickly EM simulation setups, where you can plot all crosstalk elements from the same component.

What you will learn

The course is broken down in two modules. We will start with the SIPro module and continue on to the afternoon with PIPro.

The SIPro module provides signal integrity analysis of imported high-speed PCBs. It enables you to characterize loss and coupling of signal nets, signal and power nets, and complete ground nets at once. The resulting EM model is then transferred to the ADS Transient and Channel Simulators in one seamless flow.

We start off with learning how to create a SIPro setup and how the SIPro / PIPro Window interface behaves. We define signal lines, ports, and components before running the SI analysis; and view results: S-Parameters, Time Domain Reflection (TDR).and Time Domain Transmission (TDT) results. You will do EM model extraction; generate an EM- model that captures signal-net losses and coupling – Filter by port, by net, by impedance, for quickly finding and plotting the desired relationships. You will plot the Frequency domain S-parameter results – Time domain TDR and TDT results – Mixed-mode S-parameters (e.g. Differential to Common mode conversion) – Along with fast plotting of crosstalk (NEXT, FEXT) – Fast change of reference impedance without the need to re-simulate. The labs continue with the analysis of a large PCB import: VRM to a Memory Channel Set of Signals, analyse single ended and differential Pairs and learn to define electrical models for resistor pack components and see the results of Single Ended and Differential Pairs. Lastly, you will create a Schematic capturing the EM model to do transient and Channel Simulation where you can compare different eye diagrams.

The second part of the class builds on what you learned to accomplish Net-Driven PI Analysis using PIPro. PIPro provides power integrity analysis of your power distribution network (PDN), including DC IR drop analysis, AC impedance analysis and power plane resonance analysis.

We start off performing a PI-DC and PI-AC analysis, defining a VRM, defining a Sink and running the analysis for PI-DC and viewing the results for voltages and currents at Sinks, Pins, VRM’s and vias. We list the results of current density in a vector plot indicating the direction of the current density amplitude. The same for the Power Loss Density via a scalar plot. We then move to a PI-AC analysis where we calculate the impedance of the power distribution networks from different sinks to minimize the impedance between power and ground pins at various IC locations on the board, where the goal of PI-AC analysis is to provide low impedance to all sinks. We create a PI-AC analysis, we define a component model to calculate the impact of decoupling capacitors and we run the PI-AC analysis to view the PDN Impedance at different sinks. The lab continues with the creation of a PI-PPR (Power Plane Resonance) analysis to compute the resonances of the design over a broad frequency range to identify the resonance frequencies and fields of the design, with and without components. We then do another PI-DC analysis for Static IR Drop Analysis, where we examine the IR Drop in the PDN of a DDR3 memory card. Lastly we do a PI-AC to compute the impedance for the IC current loads over a frequency range in order to do a PDN Impedance Analysis with the goal to analyse the PDN Impedance of a DDR DIMM Memory card. The topics you will learn on this part of the lab is how to add decoupling caps to the PI-AC analysis and assign models, how to view the PDN Impedance and add target impedance line.